GSOC'13

[Unnikrishnan Patel]

Hi,
My name is Unnikrishnan Patel. I am a third year student of DA-IICT, Gandhinagar. I would like to participate in GSOC-2013 and work on a new idea under Metalink. The reason why I am posting this so early is that firstly, I am completely new to the world of open source projects(so, i would really appreciate if a mentors could provide some guidelines/ resources/ instructions for me) and secondly, so that I can discuss and refine my ideas and maybe even start working well in advance.So, I would be really grateful if the mentors can guide me through this.

I am good at java and C# programming , Data structures and Algorithms and Database Management.

Sorry for such a long comment. Looking forward towards a positive reply,

Cheers,
Unnikrishnan Patel

[Anthony Bryan]

Unnikrishnan, sorry for the extremely late reply!

there aren't any current active java or C# metalink projects that I know about.
you could add metalink support to an existing C# downloader, for
instance, or create a prototype of a simple downloader in C# or
something?

it would probably be simpler to add to an existing project...

I would search for "c# downloader" or "c# download manager", for
instance http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/35954/C-NET-Background-File-Downloader
is GPL licensed so you could add to it.

metalink is extremely simple.
you have your mirrors, hashes, & perhaps signatures & other info
(either in an XML file or HTTP headers).
you can use the mirrors to download multiple byte ranges of the file
at one time.
you can use the hashes to detect an error in a piece or verify that
the whole file has transferred correctly.

--
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
)) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads